Curtailing the Cost of Commuting
One thing is clear – with gas prices climbing over $4.00 a gallon – more and more people are finally changing their transportation habits.
The U.S. has a large number of workers who commute to their jobs, and many are now forced to consider alternatives to their daily routine. The current crisis appears to have pushed the nation to explore options not previously considered.
University of Illinois Finance Professor, Don Fullerton, notes the recent changes: “Only now are people starting to think about what they ought to do differently than what they’ve done before…there’s lots of different choices people can make to adjust to the new higher gas price regime.”
A new BuyingAdvice.com study, which yielded over 1900 responses, reveals that 38% of those polled make a daily commute of 20 miles or more. For these individuals in particular, filling up the tank has become burdensome.
Nearly half (45%) of buyers report that they now pay between $51-$100 a week to fill up their car. 40% said they spend $50 or less a week, while almost 14% said that they currently fork over more than $100 weekly just to fill up their vehicle. So how do motorists intend to solve this problem?
Like the rest of the country, BuyingAdvice survey respondents choose various methods to ease the financial cost of commuting.
Though less than a quarter (19%) of those surveyed opted for using public transportation or mass transit, recent reports do indicate a nation-wide increase in the use of these options.
In Chicago, the number of people using the Metra has risen about 5 percent from last year. In the Bay Area of California, BART ridership increased 4.5 percent during the first three months of 2008.
The majority (35%) of respondents said they would consider carpooling, while 19% of participants said they would actually move closer to their workplace to offset the financial burden of commuting.
On the other hand, telecommuting, or working from home, is a trend quickly increasing in popularity these days. Almost a quarter (24%) of those polled said that they would prefer finding a job close to home in order to reduce fuel expenses.
Employers and employees alike are affected by commuting expenses, and both can clearly perceive the benefits of working from home.
According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, about 40% of IBM’s workers across the globe now work from home, an increase from 30% in 2004.
In San Diego, Elizabeth Estes-Cooper initiated “Virtual Fridays” at the company where she works as vice-president. The pilot work-at-home program will run through Labor Day.
“If it works, we’ll extend it,” says Cooper. “We realize we’re not going to reverse the greenhouse effect, but it will save about 30 gallons a week, over 400 [gallons] this summer.”
When drivers do set off in their cars, many more can be seen in hybrids. These vehicles are becoming more and more prevalent, as fuel prices continue to climb upward. Visitors to the BuyingAdvice site were pretty evenly divided when it came to this issue; 46% considered purchasing a hybrid vehicle as a way to ease the financial burden of commuting, while 53% did not.
